Brief Wondrous Poll

[coalescent]

[Poll #1169715]

Inspiration here; I suspect I'm being atypical again.

In other news: British people! ITV are showing the first episode of Pushing Daises tomorrow evening at 9pm. (At least, according to Front Row they are; I haven't checked an actual schedule.) You should watch this. It is much better than Doctor Who, I promise.

Comments

[al-zorra.livejournal.com]

I not only have heard about the novel, I read it before publication, and have spent time in the DR, know many Dominicans and know a fair amount that terrible history.

Some of get out in the world too.

Love, C.

[coalescent.livejournal.com]

I read it before publication

Ah, but before US or UK publication?

[al-zorra.livejournal.com]

U.S. publication!

I meant, of course, to type "some of us' get out into the world too.

Meaning merely that an awful lot of us -- speaking as someone from the U.S. -- don't, alas. I mean, right here in the largest population of Dominicans outside of the Dominican Republic -- it's like they don't exist. Neither does Puerto Rico, which used to be the largest Spanish speaking population here in this region. It's really shameful. Or, put it this way -- "They get no respect."

Junot Díaz has though, and it seems to me on his own terms, on any level. I've liked his writing ever since I first saw it, in The New Yorker.

Also I worry that maybe my comment came off kind of snooty, but I didn't mean it that way. I was just so excited to see that poll. I wrote about the book everywhere in sf/f populations. Nada in response. Except re an amigo from the Caribbean who posts regularly at my LJ.

Love, C.

[coalescent.livejournal.com]

Not snotty at all, don't worry! The "some other country" question was purely because I know I have some people reading who wouldn't have an option to click otherwise. I've certainly been waiting for the UK edition pretty eagerly ... now I just have to hope it lives up to the billing.

[al-zorra.livejournal.com]

It will live up to your expectations, I'm pretty sure.

It lived up to mine, and mine were very high. In fact I enjoyed it even more than I expected I would. And I admired it so much. A lot of it had to be excruciating to write because the history of the DR is bloody evil. How much he manages to provide the reader with of that history is -- well, that's some really hard writing, to put that much information in so few lines, and make it easy to read as well.

We have lots of experience in our house as to how much work that is.

Love, C.

[coalescent.livejournal.com]

Well, it's in the pile for next month, so watch this space.

[iainjclark.livejournal.com]

Fortunately Pushing Daisies doesn't have to be better Doctor Who as it's on at a different time. Hey, I might finally get around to trying it!

[frandowdsofa.livejournal.com]

I would say it's not an issue with the sf community, it's a bigger issue. I didn't even pick up that all the Pulitzers had been announced, the only ones I saw anything about were the sweep by the Washington Post. (And I must admit, I still think of it mainly as a professional set of awards for journalism.)

Given that it was only announced last Monday, though, I wouldn't expect to see much detailed coverage until the weekend broadsheets.

[coalescent.livejournal.com]

The fact that British readers by and large don't know it doesn't surprise me in the least -- it's only been out over here about a month, and it hasn't had anything like the review coverage it got in the States. Which is why I split the poll out the way I did.

[brixtonbrood.livejournal.com]

I was really surprised that a) you thought that British people wouldn't have heard of it and b) you appear to be right because I knew loads about it and thought it sounded great if I was feeling strong enough emotionally.

But then when I thought about it I realised that all my knowledge comes from a unanimous rave on Newsnight Review while I was stacking the dishwasher. (Highly informative though - I'd never have figured Michael Gove for a teen D&D player, though perhaps I should have)

There seem to have been a fair few people reading it on the Tube though.

[kate_nepveu]

Ditto re: Washington Post & award-for-journalism.

[sinboy.livejournal.com]

It vanished without more than a ripple in a few major NY/NJ local papers, the NY Times included, and they even gave it a good review in the NY times Review of Books, which I regularly hold in contempt for being highbrow for the sake of highbrow.

[the-gardener.livejournal.com]

Is Pushing Daisies more or less better than Dead Like Me?

[coalescent.livejournal.com]

Pushing Daisies >> Dead Like Me. But for calibration, I wasn't a huge fan of DLM. It was ok.

[yalovetz]

I have heard about it because I've sold it. Didn't know what it was about or whether it was sf/f related. Also, the not trumpeting its Pulitzer win is not specific to sf/f fans. We have a bay of prize winning books out the front of the shop and this is not and has never been in it, mainly because no one in the bookselling world round here knew it was a prize winner.

[coalescent.livejournal.com]

Well, it only won on Monday! So you can put it out now. ;-)

[wychwood]

One of my US friends reviewed it ages ago, positively enough that it's on my long list of things to read. And I want to qualify my answer - I said I "didn't know the sf reason for this poll", but I knew it was (arguably) sf. I just thought that you meant something else by the statement! Like, I don't know, it had just won an sf award or something. I didn't know about the Pulitzer, but I've not really heard anything about them this year except for somebody mentioning the Bob Dylan thing.

[buymeaclue.livejournal.com]

I knew I should've read this right when nihilistic_kid got it for me last year! Then I would be cool. Instead I read library books, and now I am even less cool than I was before.

[buymeaclue.livejournal.com]

(I'd read other Diaz before. Just haven't quite gotten around to finishing this.)